Posts tagged “Japanese Lessons”

Yes I am now one of those tw**s that takes a picture of themselves in the mirror!

Had a listening test today in Japanese. Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook (click here if you want to be) will have noticed already, heh! It went so very well but then I ran out of time! Damnations. I missed about 6 questions (out of 50?) but all of them that I did answer I think I got correct.

I find listening in Japanese so difficult. It’s ok when it’s written down and I can see what the vocab is, but when it is said (in super fast speed) I miss all of the important bits. Tomorrow I have Japanese conversation so I will get to practice some more!

I haven’t done my portfolio work yet and Sensei’s getting a bit miffed at me I think, so I better go and do that hey!

My ass is back into gear! I’ve had a bit of time off but I’m ready to ROLL!!

…maybe not this ready

So I’ll start with how the school year is going. It’s been nearly a month and I’ve learned… nothing! Joke.

Our modules are set out a little differently this year; I no longer have to do Japanese Reading and Writing because I was ahead last year (shwing!) and instead there is an extra module called Japanese Conversation (does what it says on the tin really) as well as the usual grammar lessons. Hopefully by the time I go to Japan next year my language skills will be SUPER AWESOME!

Other than that I am doing a semester of Methodology of Foreign Language Teaching, where we learn about how to teach foreign languages! I’m attending a seminar about the JET programme later today, for those of you who don’t know the JET programme is an exchange and teaching programme between Japan and other countries. It’s quite a big deal and very helpful if you manage to get in, it’s something I might consider when I finish my degree (‘when’ being the key word here!)

We’ve also got quite a few seminars about our year abroad (SO CLOSE NOW!!) which I am super excited about!

And of course I haven’t forgotten about the lovely team at Japan Cinema, occasionally I have to check out the ‘About’ section to make sure Marcello hasn’t gotten rid of me for being such an aweful team member! Now that university is back on my life has more structure and I can write again! And hopefully I will have more readers too!

I cannot tell you how happy I feel about it! I want to give many thanks to Marcello and of course John (who gave me the opportunity in the first place) I feel like I’m accepting an award at the Oscars.

I have to apologise for my lack of posts recently, I try to keep this blog as much Japan-related as possible, which is not so possible when I’m not in university as the only Japanese thing that happens to me is my occasional trip to Noodle Nation (which is Chinese anyway). It’s nice to see people are still reading though, thanks guys.

My wonderful Japanese teacher emailed me after I passed my exams to say well done, it was emotional. I haven’t been doing much (or any) Japanese learning recently, this needs to change! I’ve been working almost every day so it’s hard to get the motivation, but after my holiday (in 2 weeks I go to Amsterdam!!) I’m going too get right back on it!

Thanks for all the congratulations messages from you all 🙂 it was so much appreciated. I haven’t forgotten you.

This is it, the day before my last exam! Been up since 8am, it is now 10.20am and my brain has already shut down.

I’m just doing some reading comprehension (lame!) I think the exam will give me a bunch of Japanese texts with some Japanese questions about said texts which I then have to answer in Japanese? Either way I’m pretty screwed… and scared! So I need to practice my reading skills, which are shocking to say the least:

All the pretty Japanese writing is tainted with my inevitable doom!

The library is dead! It’s hard to believe that this time 2 weeks ago people were actually sleeping in here. Now it’s just me and some other guy exchanging glances of worry.

So once again I need lots of luck, I might even wish myself luck because I’m grasping at straws here!

Yes, revising has turned into taking photos of my own hand in an arty fashion. I HATE KANJI. Seriously, everything about learning Japanese would be made so much easier if Japan had just thought of its own writing system. BUT NOOOOO! Damn my life.

So let’s forget about that for a while and concentrate on how my last exam went: BRILLIANTLY. Working/sleeping/living in the library finally paid off. I mean sure, I didn’t know everything, but I managed to remember quite a lot, even got a bit cocky and left early. I am actually quite looking forward to results day now (well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves!)

So the next few days will be revolving around my Kanji exam on Friday which I’m not feeling very confident about but then at least it will all be over after that. Schwing!

Right well I’m finally back! The month of coursework hell is over!!! All I have left is 2 exams and I’m FINISHED with this year!!! So this is the part where I apologise about the quite frankly crap effort I’ve been making in every other part of my life that doesn’t involve coursework:

Sorry guys 😦

So let me update you on the last month: COURSEWORK. JOB, STRESS.

That’s pretty much all I’ve been doing! Japanese seems to be going pretty well, I feel ready for Friday’s big exam. The exams are multiple choice BUT with negative marking if you get the answer wrong, intense. You better all wish me luck! So today I’m going to be mostly going over grammar points (I hate grammar!) Too many particles to understand, so I went and bought myself a super book to explain the lot to me BUT I can’t even understand the ENGLISH words (words like idiocyntasmiplosia… hnn, not exactly that but you get the idea).

Aw man, I’ve just bought a muffin with fruit in it! That’s not cool! It cost me like £2! Still gonna eat it, obviously.

Just finished my review for Japan Cinema… though I’ve left half of it at home so I can’t even send it off, frustrating! The rest of today will be spent learning Japanese? I’m in the middle of doing some sort of oral test which I haven’t actually started yet, it includes putting on an awful headset and recording yourself reciting a poem for a member of my class to then listen to and JUDGE! These are things that I do not like. (I’ve gotten muffin all into the gaps on this keyboard… I guess that’s why we’re not allowed to eat in the library!)

Possibly gonna do some work on this Gender essay? I have 2 essential books from the library for a limited time only so I might as well make the most of it!

Had a reasonably fun Japanese lesson; some sort of stereotypically cute Japanese trainee teacher taught us… I didn’t understand a word she said but she was nice to look at (looking back at this comment I realise that, combined with the fact that I’m doing an essay about lesbianism, I must appear inclined that way..) Anyway, it was fun let’s leave it at that.

Got an hour before Japanese Modern History (BANE OF MY EXISTENCE!) but now that that awful exam is over I can go back to not paying any attention which will undoubtedly lead to failing again next time. The joy.

I managed to write another post for Lingualift about Yayoi Kusama, she’s awesome, let’s all just look at how awesome she is:

She’s in her 80s, living in a mental institution (voluntarily) likes painting polka dots and is collaborating with Marc Jacobs for Loius Vuitton. Oh, she also likes to get people naked and cover them in polka dots…

Hopefully the post will be up on Lingualift soon because quite frankly, I’m not gonna repeat myself when I’ve already written a whole article about her!

I also watched another crrrazy Japanese film last night ‘Apartment 1303’. Verdict: Don’t watch it, but DO read my review (which I haven’t actually started yet… Sorry Marcello, you will have it by the end of the week!)

Right well I seem to have returned from the portal of stress! In the past 2 week I’ve had THREE exam a presentation, 2 mini tests and I’ve been to work for 6 days. AND THEN my laptop broke so I couldn’t do any of the above with ease, but I made it out alive!!! I can hardly believe myself!

And yeah, so what I haven’t actually painted anything as the above implies I HAVE written another article for Lingualift abouta painter… pretty much the same thing right? Japanese painter Nakanishi Natsuyuki. It’s pretty bad ass so go have a look pretty please:

I’m working on another one about Yayoi Kusama, you may have heard of her as she is AWESOME! Crazy, but awesome. She’s doind a fashion collaboration with Louis Vuitton, but I won’t say too mucha bout it as I do want you to read my post when it’s done don’t I?!

Kanji writing practice is on the cards today, I’m a week behind (oh no!) so these are last weeks which I need to learn how to write from memory: